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Old 01-05-2013, 07:57 AM   #3
RonRagusa
Dojo: Berkshire Hills Aikido
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 824
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Re: Shiro Omiya Shihan on "Aiki"

Chris Li wrote:

Quote:
I think that both Greg and Carsten addressed this point on another thread. No, I don't think he's wrong - but I think that a lot of people are misunderstanding what he's saying, and that if you look at this example of Aiki in the light of the body of his comments on Aiki that becomes fairly clear.
Let's look at the quote again:

"When an opponent comes to attack you, you just move your body slightly to avoid his attack, and let him go wherever he wants. This is Aiki. In other words, you give him freedom." - Morihei Ueshiba

Now let's look at the quote in light of the 1935 film of Ueshiba demonstrating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98yRuBkUBGQ

In the film he can clearly be seen evading attacks and exercising little or no overt control of his ukes' movements. Ueshiba, in the quote calls this Aiki and in the film demonstrates it. The problem with applying interpretations to someone's words is that interpretations are subjective opinions of what is being stated. But here we have Ueshiba saying, "When an opponent comes to attack you, you just move your body slightly to avoid his attack, and let him go wherever he wants. This is Aiki." backed up by visual evidence of him supporting his own statement.

Ron

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